Landing devices are used to provide safe landing for packages or living passengers which fall from aircraft, spacecraft, or other high places. For the safe landing of re-entry spacecraft in particular, commonly used devices include parachutes, floating capsules for water landings, and retro-rockets.
The disadvantages of the commonly used devices for landing of re-entry vehicles or spacecraft are well known. Parachute cables may become entangled. Water landings require close timing of re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere. In poor weather, capsules are difficult to retrieve from the water. Retro-rockets may have reliability problems not discovered until the time of landing.
Prior inventors have recognized some of these problems. For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 2,969,211 to Von Saurma describes decelerating a projectile using an inflatable rotocoptor wing. Motion of the air spins the wing for absorbing energy and slowing the rate of vessel descent.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,421,714 to Koerner shows a re-entry vehicle having three or four metallic fins longitudinally disposed on an elongated hollow body. This drag device is suitable for small size payload packages, including small nuclear power plants. The vehicle rotates along its longitudinal axis to provide deceleration and heat dissipation. The fins protect the vehicle from the shock of landing along the edges of the cylinder but not at its end points.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,520,503 to McGehee shows an impact landing system that includes a segmented gas bag to absorb landing shock. The gas bag surrounds an instrument package for protection on impact. The gas bag segments include a plurality of inflatable compartments in communication with each other.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,613,580 to Bench discloses a wedge-shaped body with fluting that autorotates about its center of gravity. The autorotation creates a lift force that results in a longer glide pattern for wide dispersement of bomblets. Since the Bench patent is directed towards aerial mines or bomblets, no provision is made for soft landing of a payload package.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,958,565 to Koch shows a triangular inflatable decelerator structure. The structure attaches at the rear of a bomblet for slowing the descent by catching the aerodynamic flow in a manner similar to a parachute.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,108,047 to Puech discloses a deployable device having rigid panels connected by articulations to a support. The device deploys into a heat shield that decelerates the re-entry vehicle.
Despite progress made by these prior disclosures, a continued need exists for more effective means for slowing re-entry vehicles of various sizes and weight, particularly heavy re-entry vehicles weighing several tons or more. Preferably such a device would also include means for absorbing the landing impact to the vehicle. Such a device ideally should be so highly reliable that the re-entry vehicle may have living creatures on board. Those skilled in the art will appreciate the features of the present invention that solve these problems.